US announcement of Hicks charges

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Text of the US Department of Defence's release announcing the charging of David Hicks:

The Department of Defence announced today that three charges were approved against Guantanamo detainee David Hicks of Australia who will be tried by military commission.

The charges include: conspiracy to commit war crimes; attempted murder by an unprivileged belligerent and aiding the enemy.

Hicks is the third Guantanamo detainee charged.

Hicks is alleged to have attended a number of al-Qaeda terrorist training courses at various camps in Afghanistan, including an advanced course on surveillance, in which he conducted surveillance of the US and British embassies in Kabul, Afghanistan.

It is also alleged that after viewing TV news coverage in Pakistan of the September 11, 2001, attacks against the United States, he returned to Afghanistan to rejoin his al-Qaeda associates to fight against US, British, Canadian, Australian, Afghan, and other coalition forces.

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It is alleged Hicks armed himself with an AK-47 automatic rifle, ammunition, and grenades to fight against coalition forces.

Hicks is presumed innocent of any criminal charges unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt at a military commission.

A trial date and commission panel members will be selected at a later time.

Military commission procedures provide for a full and fair trial to include: the presumption of innocence; a requirement for proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt; representation by a military defence counsel free of charge with the option to retain a civilian defence counsel at no expense to the US government; an opportunity to present evidence and call witnesses; a prohibition against drawing an adverse inference if an accused chooses not to testify; and an appeal to a review panel.

Military commissions have historically been used to try violations of the law of armed conflict and related offences.

Additionally, based on the specific facts and circumstances of the Hicks case: if convicted, the prosecution will not seek the death penalty; the security and intelligence circumstances of the Hicks case are such that it would not warrant monitoring of conversations between him and his counsel; Hicks has access to an Australian lawyer with appropriate security clearance as a foreign attorney consultant; subject to any necessary security restrictions, two appropriately cleared family members of Hicks will be able to attend the trial, as well as representatives of the Australian government; if Hicks is convicted, the Australian government, as well as the defence team, may make submissions to the review panel on appeal; and the US and Australian governments will continue to work towards putting arrangements in place to transfer Hicks, if convicted, to Australia to serve any penal sentence in accordance with Australian and US law.